Stephen Oliver

Embark on an unforgettable motorcycle journey across Europe with Stephen Oliver, an adventurer with a passion for languages, history and good beer. From the sun-drenched shores of southern Spain to the icy wilderness of Norway's North Cape. North to Norway chronicles a life-enhancing quest filled with unexpected detours, quirky encounters and the camaraderie of the open road. With his friend Ralph at his side, he navigates treacherous mountain passes, explores charming places and discovers hidden depths within himself and the diverse landscapes he travels through. This is a story about embracing the unknown, the enduring power of friendship and the joy of pursuing passions. It's a journey of self-discovery that will resonate with anyone who dreams of exploring the world on their own terms and perhaps inspire you to hit the road yourself. From the sun-drenched shores of southern Spain to the icy wilderness of Norway's North Cape. North to Norwaychronicles a life-enhancing quest filled with unexpected detours, quirky encounters and the camaraderie of the open road. With his friend Ralph at his side, he navigates treacherous mountain passes, explores charming villages and discovers hidden depths within himself and the diverse landscapes he travels through. This is a story about embracing the unknown, the enduring power of friendship and the joy of pursuing passions. It's a journey of self-discovery that will resonate with anyone who dreams of exploring the world on their own terms and perhaps inspire you to hit the road yourself. Good travel books make you feel like you are there with the writer; the best travel books light a fire under you to go in search of an adventure of your own. North to Norway is both good and the best. The travails and mishaps and glorious surprises of Stephen Oliver's thrilling journey across Europe from south to north are related with immediacy and generosity. He shows why motorcycles were really invented: to take us out into the world and end up finding our inner humanity. Melissa Holbrook Pierson - author of The Perfect Vehicle, The Man Who Would Stop at NothingAn inspiring read. Erudite, entertaining and funny. Warning: may cause severe wanderlust. Geoff Hill - author of In Clancy's Boots, Way to Go, The Road to Gobblers KnobWith a smooth flowing writing style Stephen Oliver puts the reader right there with him on the roads of Europe. He brings the magic of travelling by motorcycle from Spain to Norway to life with sometimes pithy, frequently colourful observations. As he introduces the people he meets along the way with neat descriptions, he brings alive their environments, cultures and the quirks of their histories. His honesty and easy sense of humour, add to the mix. Addictive reading. Sam Manicom - author of Into Africa, Under Asian Skies

The Song of Globule is a collection of 80 sonnets, pursuing the oneiric preoccupations of a young femal protagonist living in Sydney who, if not suffering from multiple personality disorder, is certainly a fantasist. Her sensibilities are continuously informed by a chorus of legendary heroines, both real and mythological. The collection ends with a rendering of Ovid's fifteen epistolary poems, Heroides, forming a coda to our heroine's vertiginous journey.

This collection of prayers and readings is intended as a flexible resource for use in pastoral ministry. The material covers pastoral situations of all kinds, with chapters on: house and home; new life; relationships; baptism and confirmation; healing and wholeness; and death and bereavement.

Poems by Stephen Oliver--Australasian poet. He has published 19 volumes of poetry. Lived in Australia for 20 years. Currently in NZ. Appeared in Writing To The Wire Anthology, edited by Dan Disney and Kit Kelen, University of Western Australia 2016; and, Manifesto: A Political Anthology, edited by Emma Neale and Philip Temple, Otago University Press 2017. Luxembourg, Stephen Oliver, published & distributed by Greywacke Press, Canberra, Australia, 2018.

In the centre of the harsh and unforgiving world of Tyran lies Valheim the largest and most powerful of the five kingdoms. It is a dark, brutal, journey that one young boy must go on. Disowned by his warrior father the king of Valheim for being weak, young prince Stefan must become stronger to restore his honour and embrace his destiny.

Gone: Satirical poems: New & Selected published through Greywacke Press who published his earlier collection of satirical poems, Ballad, Satire & Salt - A Book of Diversions, from which selections have been made for Gone, brings together a diverse range of metrical constructions including villanelles, sonnets, raunchy ballads and whimsical ballades. There is an invigorating, sardonic edge to Oliver's poetic, driven by an often oblique and dark humour. The ballad, for instance, is a demotic form, but it takes a particular skill (one Oliver owns to a high degree) to write with the kind of verve that enlivens rhythms both comic and colloquial. Here we have tales of murder, drunkenness and debauchery. We live in the Age of the Anthropocene. Oliver deftly lampoons a world consumed by its own narcissistic concerns.'Composed over the course of the last few decades, and displaying an enormous range in voice and form, these poems find focus in the struggle between art and amusement, both with respect to the writer who creates and the audience that consumes. Consequently, while always entertaining, the poems also often possess a subtle power to disturb and provoke, an effect that in the best examples leave you almost feeling guilty for having so much fun while reading them'. - Jefferson Gaskin, AntipodesStephen Oliver's collections of poetry include: Henwise, Hawk Press, 35pp (1975); & interviews, Horizontal Press, 68pp (1978); Autumn Songs, Horizontal Press, 20pp (1978); Letter To James K. Baxter, Horizontal Press, 24pp (1980); Earthbound Mirrors, Horizontal Press, 52pp (1984); Guardians, Not Angels, Hazard Press, 80pp (1993); Islands of Wilderness-A Romance, Penguin Books, Australia, 122pp (1996); Unmanned, HeadworX Publishers, 92pp (1999); Election Year Blues, Pork Barrel Press, 22pp (1999); Night of Warehouses: Poems 1978-2000, HeadworX Publishers, 192pp (2001); Deadly Pollen, Word Riot Press, USA, 32pp (2003); Ballads, Satire & Salt-A Book of Diversions, Illustrated by Matt Ottley, Greywacke Press, Sydney, 88pp (2003); Either Side The Horizon, Titus Books, Auckland, 112pp (2005); Parable Of The Sea Sponge, Kilmog Press, Dunedin, 32pp (2007); Harmonic, Interactive Press, Brisbane, 112pp (2008); Apocrypha, 22pp (2010); Intercolonial, Puriri Press, Auckland, 74pp (2013).

Do you have problems setting goals? Once you've set your goals, do you look around and say to yourself "now what?" Do you find it difficult to know whether you're achieving your goals? If any of these seems familiar, then this is the book for you. You'll learn how to: - Decide what goals you want to make reality, and pass them through the steps necessary to make them compelling enough for you to follow. - Proceed from writing your goals down to actually doing something about them. - Deal with blocks and lack of motivation, align yourself around your goals to move all parts of yourself in the same direction, and even learn a way to create new options and ideas. - Create new beliefs to support you in achieving your goals. In this book, Stephen shows you how to do it, and illustrates this by showing how he did it. Included are 20 worksheets as well as 4 cutouts to help you with the exercises in the book. These can also be downloaded and printed out for your personal use. Excellent book In-depth and packed with insights Dr Joe Vitale, author "The Attractor Factor"

The book explores the reality of grief from different perspectives and provides some insightful help primarily to those trying to support a colleague, friend or family member who is being overwhelmed by their primal grief, Though the book will contain important and practical material for those who are poleaxed by grief, the focus will be on those around them who are struggling to understand, and feel that sense of helplessness in knowing what to do and say for the best.